Les ailes du destin

I absolutely loved I'll Fly Away but sometimes find myself thinking Im the only person who ever watched it. All my friends don't know or remember it. I think the relationships between blacks and whites were portrayed in a sensitive yet realistic way. Regina Taylor was brilliant!! I had forgotten her name unfortunately, so I opened up the I'll Fly Away page for information. I was surprised that her name did not even appear on the 1st page of the cast list! I don't understand why Regina Taylor's name is not first on the list. After all the film was mostly from her perspective and about her experiences! It looks to me she has been relegated to the bottom of the list for some weird reason, its not like the list is even in alphabetical order!

Respectfully, I disagree with the one comment posted so far.

My wife and I discovered this series when it was on PBS. As stated, we are amazed that something this good was originally on commercial TV. Is it totally unrealistic that a maid would ultimately be that outspoken, and that a Southern white lawyer could slowly have his eyes opened? Maybe. But I think the key is that everything developed slowly, over time. There were no unrealistically sudden conversions.

Among the other things that impressed us: There were no easy answers; every episode, it seems, almost painfully explored issues with complexity. If you want easy answers, this is not the series for you.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" was certainly a classic (although, as my 85 year-old father has observed, Gregory Peck played the same essential character in virtually every movie.) And it may be true that its characterization was true of the vast majority of even well-meaning southern whites. But I accept the possibility that, even in that time, at least one person of color "pushed the envelope". And that at least one Southern white of good heart found himself or herself slowly transformed.

If you can accept this, admire this series for its excellent performances and refusal to take the easy way out in any episode.

The quick summary is "To Kill a Mockingbird" made into a TV series, but this show is so much more. It's more sophisticated than Mockingbird in terms of moral ambiguity, political realities, and human relations. The black characters aren't merely background or props to test the virtue of the white characters as they are in so many well-meaning stories about race; They are fully fleshed-out people, with their own stories. Sam Watterson's character, unlike Atticus Finch, is flawed, human. He compromises,stumbles, fails on occasion, and this makes his struggles and progress all the more affecting. Some might complain that Regina Taylor's maid character is perhaps too noble, too perfect, but her dignity under trying circumstances moved me to tears almost every episode. The acting, writing, direction is consistently excellent. When will this landmark series be given the DVD box set it deserves?

"I'll Fly Away" was and always will be my favorite show. Intelligent, well written, and beautifully acted, the show was much more than prime time entertainment and I was absolutely heartbroken when it was cancelled. I was ten when the series premiered, and my mother and I would watch it (and cry) every week. Though it has been years since I have seen an episode, I still never fail to feel a huge lump in the back of my throat at the thoughts of Lily registering to vote, or John Morgan telling his friends that his mother is a famous cowgirl. Each episode was like a small Horton Foote play, and to watch its characters grow over a long period of time was the show's greatest asset.

Though an enormous critical success, I find it tragic that the show has become such a forgotten treasure. In today's cynical world of post-O.J. Simpson, I will always remember "I'll Fly Away" for its shear hope, optimism, and unabashed honesty.

It is high time for this show to be brought back for reruns!!!

Forrest Bedford is an extremely flawed and conflicted character, and his relationship with Lily is deeply strained. Morally, he understands that segregation is wrong and that integration is inevitable, however he worries about the changes Civil Rights will bring as he is bound up with tradition. He beautifully illustrates the mindset of several white southerners as his dilemma is representative of the struggle of tradition vs. change that STILL plagues the modern south.

I long for this show to come out on DVD. It is still as I recall one of the very best shows on TV. What is the problem??? There is certainly a wide audience who want to own and see it again. It is timely because it is of an important time period in the US and now with the Martin Luther King Memorial being dedicated in DC is a perfect time to help this generation learn about what life was like for a segment of our population.

The cast, the actors, the dialog were all spot on encompassing family, work, community and country reactions to the questions raised by the Civil Rights Act.

If you don't believe me, just catch the numbers reading and seeing the movie The Help. I can't wait to own that on DVD as well as SOMEDAY "I'll Fly Away".